Captivity--death! My good woman--my dear lady--can"t you draw it a little milder? Is not this New York City? And are we not in the year of grace eighteen hundred and ninety? Pray, don"t go back to the Dark Ages, when lovers went clad in clanking suits of mail, and forcibly carried off brides from the altar, under the priest"s very nose, _a la_ Young Lochinvar. Do be reasonable, there"s a good soul!"
Miriam turned her back upon him in superb disdain.
"And this is the man Mollie preferred! This is the man I thought would help me! Mr. Hugh Ingelow, I wish you good-evening."
"No, no." exclaimed Mr. Ingelow, starting up. "Not yet! Open the mysteries a little before you depart. I"m willing and ready to aid you to the best of my ability. Tell me what I"m to do, and I"ll do it."
"I have nothing to tell," Miriam said, steadfastly. "I will not put you to the trouble of helping me."
"But you must!" cried the artist, suddenly transforming himself into a new man. "If Mollie Dane is really in danger, then I must know, and aid her. No one has a better right, for no one on earth loves her as well as I do."
"Ha!" exclaimed Miriam, stopping short. "We have it at last, have we? You love her, then?"
"With all my heart, and mind, and strength; as I never have loved, and never will love, any other earthly creature. Now, then, sit down here and tell me, from first to last, what you came here to tell."
He wheeled forward a chair, took the woman by both shoulders, and compelled her to be seated. His face was very pale, his eyes alight, his statuesque mouth stern, and set, and powerful.
Miriam looked at him with dawning admiration and respect. The man that makes them obey is the man women are pretty safe to adore.
"Now, then," he said--"now, Madame Miriam, I want you to begin at the beginning and tell me all. If Mollie Dane is above ground, I will find her."
The woman looked up in his handsome face, locked in grim, inflexible resolution--an iron face now--and relaxed.
"Mollie was not deceived in you, after all. I am glad of it, I like you.
I would give a year of my life to see you safely her husband."
"Many thanks! Pity she is not of the same mind!"
"Girls change.--You never asked her but once. Suppose you try again. You are young enough and handsome enough to win whomsoever you please."
"You are complimentary. Suppose we leave all that and proceed to business. Tell me what you know of Miss Dane"s abduction."
He seated himself before her and waited, his eyes fixed gravely on her face.
"To make what I have to say intelligible," said Miriam, "it is necessary to give you an insight into the mystery of her previous evanishment. She was tricked away by artifice, carried off and forcibly held a prisoner by a man whose masked face she never saw."
"Impossible! Mr. Walraven told me, told every one, she was with you."
"Very likely. Also, that I was dying or dead. The one part is as true as the other. Mollie never was near me. She was forcibly detained by this unknown man for a fortnight, then brought home. She told me the story, and also who she suspected that man to be."
"Who?"
Miriam looked at him curiously.
"Doctor Guy Oleander, or--you!"
"Ah, you jest, madame!" haughtily.
"I do not. She was mistaken, it appears, but she really thought it might be you. To make sure, she found means of communicating with this strange man, and a meeting was appointed for last night, ten o"clock, corner of Broadway and Fourteenth Street".
"Yes! Well?"
"Mollie went, still thinking--perhaps I should say hoping--it might be you, Mr. Ingelow: and I, too, was there."
"Well?"
"Mollie did not see me. I hovered aloof. It was only half past nine when she came--half an hour too early--but already a carriage was waiting, and a man, disguised in hat and cloak and flowing beard, stepped forward and accosted her at once. What he said to her I don"t know, but he persuaded her, evidently with reluctance, to enter the carriage with him. The rain was pouring. I suppose that was why she went. In a moment the coachman had whipped up the horses, and they were off like a flash."
Miriam paused. Mr. Ingelow sat staring at her with a face of pale amaze.
"It sounds like a scene from a melodrama. And Miss Dane has not returned since?"
"No; and the household on Fifth Avenue are at their wits" end to comprehend it."
"And so am I," said the artist. "From what you say, it is evident she went willingly--of her own accord. In such a case, of course, I can do nothing."
"She did not go willingly. I am certain she entered that carriage under the impression she was going with you."
Mr. Ingelow"s sensitive face reddened. He rose and walked to the window.
"But since it was not I, who do you suppose it may have been?"
"Doctor Oleander."
"No! He would not dare!"
"I don"t know him," said Miriam; "but from what Mollie says of him, I should judge him to be capable of anything. He loves her, and he is madly jealous; and jealous men stop at nothing. Then, too, Mrs. Walraven would aid him. She hates Mollie as only one woman can hate another."
"Doctor Oleander, then, must be the man who abducted her before, else how could he keep the a.s.signation?"
"Yes," said Miriam, "that is the worst of it. Poor Mollie! it will drive her mad. She detests the man with all her heart. If she is in his power, he will show her no mercy. Mr. Ingelow, can you aid her, or must I seek her alone and unaided?"
Mr. Ingelow was standing with his back to her, looking out at the last yellow line of the sunset streaking the twilight sky. He turned partly around, very, very pale, as the woman, could see, and answered, guardedly:
"You had better do nothing, I think. You had better leave the matter altogether to me. Our game is shy, and easily scared. Leave me to deal with him. I think, in a battle of wits, I am a match even for Guy Oleander; and if Mollie is not home before the moon wanes, it will be no fault of mine."
"I will trust you," Miriam said, rising and walking to the door. "You will lose no time. The poor child is, no doubt, in utter misery."
"I will lose no time. You must give me a week. This day week come back, if Mollie is not home, and I will meet you here."
Miriam bowed her head and opened the door.
"Mollie will thank you--I can not. Farewell!"
"Until this day week," Hugh Ingelow said, with a courteous smile and bow.
And then Miriam Dane was gone, flitting through bustling Broadway like a tall, haggard ghost.
Hugh Ingelow turned back to the window, his brows knit, his lips compressed, his eyes glowing with a deep, intense fire--thinking. So he stood while the low, yellow gleams died out of the western sky, and the crystal stars swung in the azure arch--thinking, thinking!